Following a visit to York Minster, to tour the “Hidden Places”, along with 9 other members of the Barwick in Elmet Historical Society, I spent a good couple of hours climbing, descending, squeezing, through small apertures along very narrow corridors and up ever decreasing spiral stairways in the innards of York Minster, viewing at close hand the stunning masonry, much of it dating to the 1200′s. Despite the usual British, dull and rainy weather, it was a great trip, well worth the fee of £100.00 for the group, maximum of 10 people. Our guides were helpful and informative, in all a good event. I put a few key images on my Flickr account, click on the photo of the Gargoyle above to view them. One particularly interesting piece was the modern Carillon, bell playing apparatus, a modern British Engineered, masterpiece, there are some pictures of the cables and bells on Flickr. I rather like this one, something about the curves, which appeal.
Archive for the ‘Archaeology’ Category
York Minster Visit
Sunday, April 15th, 2012Triumphal Arch to Feature in New Book
Saturday, March 31st, 2012Some time ago I was contacted by a lady who was researching for a book about Georgian garden buildings, she had come across one of my pictures of the Triumphal Arch on Flickr and requested it be included for consideration in the upcoming book about Georgian garden buildings. Naturally I was pleased one of my pictures was in contention for a place in the book, although I have to say its not the one I would have used, however, never look a gift horse in the mouth… and anything which raises the profile of Parlington gets my vote!
Medieval Cross Near Bramham
Saturday, January 14th, 2012
Following recent trimming of the roadside hedges, scrub and trees, the old cross which is believed to date back to medieval times, is quite prominent on the roadside, on the left as you progress from Tadcaster on Toulston Lane towards Bramham. It really is great to see something like this, without too much in the way of vandalism afflicting it, just some fairly light scratchings from some people keen to leave their initials for no-one to wonder who they were!
The cross is listed and the following is the listing reference:
Roof Truss Sketch Goes Global!
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011A couple of years back, summer 2008 to be more precise, I constructed a virtual roof truss of the timber structure which once covered the Drawing Room Block at Parlington Hall, from the early part of the nineteenth century up until around the mid 1950′s. Below is a view of the sketch. Clicking on the picture will take you to the relevant section on the Parlington History Site, in a new window.
Lost Painting of Parlington Hall
Sunday, October 17th, 2010
I wrote about a water colour painting of Parlington Hall which had been found in a skip, it features in an earlier post,
http://www.parlington.info/2009/09/04/country-life-magazine/
The picture above is of the painting; for over a year I have carefully steered a path towards having the picture recovered and returned to its rightful home, Lotherton Hall, where it will be displayed for the interest of the general public.
The Cellar is Consigned to History Again
Thursday, September 30th, 2010My excavations that re-discovered the cellar in the summer of 2005 as documented here on the Parlington History site are being consigned to history AGAIN! Sadly, the location is being filled with cheap rubble and demolition waste, not even clean stone is being used. The stairway to the cellar built almost certainly in the 1730′s at the behest of Sir Edward Gascoigne, when he constructed the central block that would endure as Parlington’s main elevation for over 250 years, is being filled by Messrs Moron & Co! That’s how annoyed I am. I don’t care who owns the place, playing fast and loose with our history and heritage is frankly truly barbaric. Here is the evidence:
BBC – A History of the World
Monday, June 7th, 2010
For those interested in all things historical, I’ve added a short article about the Brewster Stereo Photo Viewer to the new BBC “A History of the World” web site which acompanies the rather good Radio Four series, “A History of the World in a 100 Objects”.
The site and in particular my article about the viewer is here: Brewster 3D Viewer
The article on my on the main Parlington History site is here:
Artefacts Section
The idea is a naked attempt to push more visitors to the History site, as people keep telling me that the profile of the site is too low!
Parlington Artefacts Display at Crossgates
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010This coming Friday, 28th May, I will be setting up a new exhibit at Crossgates Heritage Centre of my Parlington artefacts, for the East Leeds History and Archaeology Society. The picture below is a view of the Centre at Crossgates Library, and I presume, my items will be placed in one of the glass cabinets. Whilst this is somewhat smaller than the four cabinets on display at Lotherton Hall, I’m sure I can put enough into it to make it a worthwhile exhibit.
Lotherton Parlington Exhibition Closes
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Having not written any articles recently, I felt I should add a short note about my exhibition of Parlington artefacts that have been on display at Lotherton Hall these last six months and more. Today the items have been taken down and packed into boxes, to return to Parlington, so ends my first mini-exhibition, which by all accounts was well received. Perhaps the best item on display was the collection of stereo photo cards from the 1860′s and the “Brewster” mahogany stereo viewer (shown above). I think it reasonable to believe that the photographs were taken by one of Gascoigne family, or a close friend and found their way via the then butler John Shelton to his descendants and finally back to Parlington! The details of the extrordinary discovery is recounted on the Parlington history site here.
Tutankhamun was not born in Swaffham!
Friday, November 27th, 2009Swaffham Cemetery
This may seem an odd post title, but during my visit to London last weekend, whilst on route to the V & A Museum in South Kensington, I noticed a sign in the tube network which gave dates of various luminaries from the past and their birth places. There was the name of Howard Carter [1874-1939] the Egyptologist, famous for discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun on the 26th of November 1922. His birthplace was stated as Swaffham, and having visited the place recently, I was unaware of this fact. [This link is to an earlier post about a visit to Swaffham] This reminded me of my own mini discovery a couple of years ago whilst cutting the grass, my foot slipped down a rabbit hole and I grated my ankle on a hard object which turned out to be the remains of a brick wall.